Music at Arlington Street Church
Music Staff
• Mark David Buckles • Director of Music
• Molly Wood • Collaborative Pianist
• Julia Mintzer • Mezzo-Soprano
• Valerie Estle • Soprano
• Daniel Ross • Tenor
• J. Jacob Krause • Baritone
Mark David Buckles • Director of Music • MBuckles@ASCBoston.org
Mark David Buckles, conductor, composer, music educator, and multi-instrumentalist, is a native of Beverly Hills, Michigan. Mark received his Masters of Music in Conducting at the Boston University College of Fine Arts and his Bachelors of Music in Composition from the University of Michigan School of Music.
Mark serves as Adjunct Professor of Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and as Music Director Emeritus of Juventas, the acclaimed Boston-based New Music Ensemble dedicated to performing the works of young composers, which he co-founded in 2005.
In 2003 and 2005, Mark participated in the European American Music Alliance in Paris, where he received honors for his studies in counterpoint and harmony. Mark is also a 2006 graduate of the Conductors’ Institute at Bard College.
A prolific composer and arranger of choral, vocal, and instrumental music, Mark has received commissions from the University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club, the University of Michigan Honors Convocation, Miller College, and Dixboro United Methodist Church. His works have been performed and recorded by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Boston Choral Ensemble, the Boston University Concert Chorus, the Saint Petersburg String Quartet, and various other ensembles.
Molly Wood • Collaborative Pianist • Office@ASCBoston.org
Molly Wood is a free-lance collaborative pianist in the Boston area who performs regularly with vocalists, instrumentalists, and chamber groups. She accompanies the Boston University Choral Society and the Arlington Street Church Choir. She also accompanies for dance classes at the Boston Ballet. A frequent performer of new music, she serves as rehearsal coach and performance pianist for OperaHub and Guerilla Opera, groups dedicated to performing new and accessible opera works.
Julia Mintzer • Mezzo-Soprano • Office@ASCBoston.org
Hailed as “rich-sounding and sultry” by Montreal Gazette and by The Bostonist for her “brooding, seductive mezzo” and “immediate and vivid” performance, Julia Mintzer is finding a niche in contemporary and twentieth century works while continuing to establish herself in the standard repertoire. She recently performed the title role in Tobias Picker’s new opera Thérèse Raquin with the Boston University Opera Institute (New England premiere), and Carmen in La Tragédie de Carmen at the Hot Springs Music Festival. She reprised the role of Carmen at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Montreal in August, to which La Presse wrote: “L’Américaine Julia Mintzer, 24 ans, est une Carmen très vraie : extrêmement sensuelle, avec la grâce d’un serpent, la violence d’un tigre, et un mezzo au grave pénétrant.”
Her other operatic appearances include the title roles of Susan B. Anthony in The Mother of Us All (Juilliard Opera Workshop) and Elle in La Voix Humaine (Chautauqua Institution), Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti (Opera Institute), Meg Page in Falstaff (Crested Butte Music Festival), and Marianne in Verse of Fortune, a world premiere by Noa Ain, at the Alliance Française in New York. Julia was a Studio Artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, where she sang Oasis in L’Étoile, and Sesto in excerpts from La Clemenza di Tito.
In concert, she has appeared with Opera Boston, Opera for Humanity, the Kennet Symphony, the Queens College Symphony Orchestra, and at Alice Tully Hall, in repertoire ranging from Bach and Haydn to Shostakovich and Weill. She has given full recitals for New Triad for Collaborative Arts, and the Austrian American Society, in whose Music Competition she took First Prize. Julia was a finalist in the American Bach Society Vocal Competition, and has been selected to participate in the Rachmaninoff Vocal Competition, where she will compete in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, where she was awarded Scholastic Distinction, and is currently a resident artist with the Opera Institute.
Valerie Estle • Soprano • Office@ASCBoston.org
Biography and other information to come.
Daniel Ross • Tenor • Office@ASCBoston.org
Tenor Daniel Ross is a senior at Boston University studying voice with baritone and NATS Master-Teacher Dr. Jerrold Pope. Mr. Ross hails from Salem, Oregon and is the youngest of four siblings. He has won vocal competitions in both the Northwest and Boston.
Mr. Ross was twice the tenor Winner of the Oregon State Solo Contest (2005, 2006) and the Winner of Portland’s AllClassical 89.9 KBPS Young Talent Search Contest (2005). He has won the regional competitions of both the Cascade (2006) and Boston (2008) Chapters of NATS. He was also awarded the German Art Song Prize for his 2008 performance at NATS Boston.
Mr. Ross has sung in the Ensemble of Boston University’s productions of Puccini’s La bohème, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 2009, Mr. Ross covered the role of Normanno in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. At Boston University, he has also performed scenes in the roles of Idomeneo and Tito from the Mozart operas of the same names and in the role of Nemorino from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.
During the summer of 2009, Mr. Ross studied with Marlena Malas and Michael Dean at the Voice Program of the Chautauqua Institution. There he sang in the Ensemble of productions of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and performed the role of Nemorino in a scenes program.
In 2009, Mr. Ross won the Boston University Ellalou Dimmock Recital Permission for undergraduate singers and will thus perform songs by Hugo Wolf, Ottorino Respighi, and Pietro Cimara in recital at 7:30 pm on November 10th, 2009 at BU’s CFA Concert Hall (855 Commonwealth Ave. opposite Amory St.). He can also be seen in the role of Don José (Bizet’s Carmen) in scenes programs on December 5th & 6th, 2009 (both at 6:00 pm), in the same venue. Finally, Mr. Ross’s Senior Recital is tentatively scheduled for March 20th, 2010 at 8:30 pm, again in the CFA Concert Hall.
J. Jacob Krause • Baritone • Office@ASCBoston.org
J. Jacob Krause, stage director, singer, and theatrical designer, hails from Detroit, Michigan where he began his study of music and theater from a young age. He received his Bachelors Degree in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan where he not only studied the art and techniques of singing but the dramatic and directorial techniques of the art form. These skills coupled with his instrumental skills, primarily in Piano and Trumpet led him to pursue Stage Direction.
Jacob has studied opera in Florence and Israel and has done Schubert Art Song Tours through the Rhein River Valley of Germany. He has performed with the Michigan Opera Theater, New England Light Opera, Marsh Chapel Chorus, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, The Vox Consort and OperaHub.
In addition to his performance credits, Jacob has also founded OperaHub, an opera company devoted to creating accessible opera for all where he has staged three successful productions (Idomeneo, Anything Goes: A cabaret, Changing Modes: An Opera Fashion Show). He has recently taken the role of Artistic Director of Juventas, acclaimed Boston-based New Music Ensemble dedicated to performing the works of young composers, where he spearheads their opera program. With Juventas, Jacob has staged three world premiere operas and continually pushes the envelope for innovative stagings in new opera as well as new music concerts.
Updated September, 2009